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Fresh Malware Samples likely for Exceeding 75m by 2011 End; McAfee

According to the Q3-2011 malware report by McAfee, published recently, fresh malicious programs will exceed 75m by the time the current 2011 will end. V3.co.uk published this in news dated November 21, 2011.

Moreover, McAfee states that fresh malware items are exceeding in number compared to previous estimates which has prompted the company towards predicting a higher malware rate.

Remarking about this fresh as well as fascinating development, Security Strategist Toralv Dirro of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) unit of McAfee Labs stated that fresh malicious programs had been increasing mainly because of increase in toolkits that helped design crimeware. And as cyber-criminals utilized more and more mechanized tools for creating malicious programs, distinct items of such programs were also rising in number unlike ever before. The majority of the malicious programs comprised just a few kits for PC Trojans, with not any significant number of people attempting at coding those Trojans as their original variant, Dirro explained. V3.co.uk reported this.

Furthermore, alongside the above discovery, McAfee also outlines within its Q3-2011 report that phony anti-viruses, password stealing Trojans as well as AutoRun significantly changed in count in comparison to the earlier quarters' numbers for the period. Additionally, Mac malware too kept on increasing after it steeply rose during Q2-2011.

However, while the malware rise during Q3-2011 wasn't really considerable, McAfee Labs cautions users that with the rise in the popularity of specific platforms like the Mac OS (operating system) for both business as well as consumer utility, the creators of malware are sure to exploit these platforms more and more for attacking users.

Besides, attackers also commonly use Web threats to victimize unwitting users. Online sites, which are viewed as malicious, have many reasons that lead to the situation, as also frequently get influenced with phishing websites' malware they host. During Q3-2011, newly introduced "bad websites" declined slightly in number to a mean of 6,500 from 7,300 during Q2-2011.

Eventually, according to McAfee, it observed considerable hacking activity during Q3-2011. Many sophisticated assaults along with movement off hacker cabal Anonymous' operations resulted in plentiful excitement, it further observed.